25 to Life...

I ran the show at work solo this past week as my co-worker was on vacation.  It ONLY took me 4 days to get the hang of it.  On Friday my manager did some training or something at home, so I was just me.  Like the title says, I didn’t burn the place down.  (There is, however, a hole in the wall and a door missing as it was removed from my manager's office.  Surprise!)  If this is any indication of things to come when I make the jump to 2nd shift…we're doomed.  It's going to be a rough couple of weeks doing that.

I've been watching a bit of the Olympics this past week, and I’m sick of Michael Phelps coverage though.  Yeah, he's winning tons of gold medals, but it’s a bit of overkill.  Well, swimming will be over in a few days and we’ll forget about him until we reach London in 2012.

Also, Gurren Birgade logo for my avatar thingy.  Neat.

Last update I said I was going bowling and straight to Ohio.  Well, I really, really suck at bowling.  I got one strike in two games played.  Yeah, it was quite bad.  On the car ride to Ohio, nothing much happened.  I was completely and for some unknown reason entertained by the Garmin GPS thing my grandpa bought.  It talked out the directions and was quite amusing.  Why?  I have no idea.

Anyway, we get to Ohio and check in to the room which had one huge bed.  My grandpa suggested that I sleep in between him and grandma.  That was funny. Well, at least to us.  We got a room with 2 beds in the end.  Then my relatives and brother arrive and we all go out to dinner.  I tried sauerkraut balls (deep fried sauerkraut in ball form) and they were nasty.  Of course I eat 2 just to make sure.  We go back to the hotel room, watch TV, go to sleep blah, blah, blah.

We get up at like 7:00am shower, eat breakfast, get lost going to Derby Downs.  We arrive in time for the parade of participants and other such fanfare.  My one cousin, somehow has a girl as, we called her, "arm candy" parading down the track.  I laughed.  Oh, my butt may be on the Discovery channel in the future as I was leaning against the fence looking up track and lo and behold, a Discovery channel camera man.

My cousin (younger sister of "Superpimp") goes and looses in the first round.  Everyone is disappointed.  Superpimp goes down later, and wins his heat!  We (a whole group of friends my relatives have made over the years) go nuts.  He goes on to win round 2 and secure a spot in the top 9.  In the ends up finishing 7th overall and all are excited.

On the way home I got to finally eat at a Quaker Steak & Lube.  Good stuff.  And, and as a bonus, one will be opening here in Buffalo in November.  Good weekend overall.  Most fun I’ve had in a while.

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I beat The World Ends With You 2 or so weeks ago.  Fun little game.  Pick it up if you have a DS.  I’m currently working on Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis.  It’s a 2-D sprite based RPG, which I guess I’m a sucker for.  After that, it’s on to .hack//G.U. Volume 3.  Found it used at random while on my lunch break and bought it right there.

Work is going fine.  Everything is slowly coming together in my brain and days just fly by.  I, and my co-worker, did some major slacking last week as the manager was on vacation.  Still got work doe, just not as fast as usual.

Well, tomorrow is gong to be most interesting.

First I’m working as normal until 1:00pm, and then most of the Online campus at the college is going bowling.  Yeah, I’m getting paid (I think) to go bowling.  It’s one of those “team building activities.”  I see it as a chance to blow off work and go bowling.  Yep, that works for me.

After an afternoon of bowling and “team building” crap, I’m off to Ohio.  Straight from the alley.  You see, my cousins are participating in the Great American Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio.  SO, my grandparents are coming to get me and off I will go.  My brother has been there all week.

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In unrelated news, I’ve tried to go to Holland speedway for the past two weeks only to be rained out, both times.  In all the years I had (it’s been about 7 years since I went) I believe it’s been rained out once or twice.  And we went like 5 times a year.  So, we can use our stubs as free rain tickets, which is cool.  And knowing my luck will be rained out again.  The place is also a dump and there were very few people there.  Kind of sad considering when that place used to be packed every week.

Yeah, I’m quite happy with the bookstore.  I work 9-6, which is new to me.  But I output about 60% of actual working power after 5pm when the manager leaves.  Plus I’m quite hidden by a wall that blocks the main entrance/exit to the warehouse.  Plus I can hear people coming from them walking on the floor.  So, that’s cool.  I got an hour lunch break, of which 40+ minuets is occupied with walking.  Since I got nothing else better to do, might as well?  Right?  It beats sitting in my car/break room all that time.  I get to enjoy the outdoors, well as much as a business park/highway will allow. 

Nothing really else to report about.  I’m surprised I’ve been doing this journal so long.  Even if nobody reads it.  Meh, just something to do…

It’s finally over. I’m no longer employed at my crappy job. After 11 months of crap (and 3 of total crap) I’m gone, FOREVER! So, I decided to rollerblade through the warehouse for no good reason today in celebration/protest/nothing better to do/go out in a blaze or glory. I got yelled at. Turns out you can’t do that. Who knew? After that I told the owner’s son that “I just don’t care anymore,” and he just told me to punch out. So, I did. Leaving that joke of a place behind FOREVER! I then told him that I haven’t cared for weeks now, and the owner’s daughter said something to the effect of “well it shows” or something stupid. Like I cared at that point, oh wait, I didn’t! So, as of Monday, I shall be employed at the online college bookstore. I have to wear pants during this hot (official) summer weather, but it’s a small price to pay for actual benefits. Like, medical, dental, life insurance, and a neat 401(k) plan. Sure beats “you can wear whatever you want!” 

Employee: Hey, I just broke my arm! 

Owner’s Daughter: It’s ok! You can wear a t-shirt and shorts! 

Employee: Holy crap! I’m going to bled out! This is bad! 

Owner’s Daughter: It’s ok! You can wear a t-shirt and shorts! 

Employee: *keels over dead Owner’s Daughter: It’s ok! You can wear a t-shirt and shorts! 

I’ve also been listening to Rock n’ Roll Part 2, Also Sprach Zarathustra, and a song from the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST called Rap wa Kan no Tamashii da! Muri wo Toushite Douri wo Kettobasu! Ore Tachi dai Gurren Dan no Theme wo Mimi no Ana Kappo Jitte yo~ Kukiki Yagare!! on a continuous loop. I’m off to greener spaces and a better life for all! 

ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWA!!

Well, it’s official.  I’m leaving my current employer...FOREVER!!! I finally got a callback from the college bookstore place, and was hired yesterday.  Thank freaking goodness.  My last day is next week Friday, with epic plans for my final moments there. First, I was going to bring my rollerblades and skate around the warehouse, for no good reason.  Then it somehow evolved into me playing music as well by way of my MP3 player hooked up to an iPod speaker in a backpack.  Don’t ask beacuse it made sense when I planned it.  I got a week and a half to get an awesome play list compiled and downloaded and then on to the player.  As you would expect, I’m happy as a clam…whatever that means…

Just some randoom thoughts and crap like that… 

I found a neat job online for an online bookstore for a college campus (and ironically, my alma mater). I nailed both interviews last week, waited a weekend for a decision, and nothing as of this posting. My hopes were pretty high, but they are quite low… 

One of my former co-workers was/is a drunk. He’s come into work before, hung-over but not plastered. Well, he was completely smashed last Thursday and was fired, at 3pm after all the work was done. Like I need to worry about a drunk driving a fork truck… 

My PS2 finally died after 2 or so years of not functioning properly. I’m guessing it’s the extremely high humidity as its, like, 80 degrees out. Not fun to work in either… 

TNA Slamiversary was pretty good. The King of the Mountain finish was lame, but a good card overall. UFC 85 was good as well. It was made better by the consuming of mass quantities of chicken wings at Buffalo Wild Wings… 

I thought I had more to type out, guess not…

It's official, I'm stuck in shipping forever now (pending new job of course).  I knew it was coming.  Just finally giving up all hope. 

I talked to the boss' daughter and she BSed and sugar-coated the bad news.  She claims that some things I listed from 2-3 weeks ago [total lie, I haven't listed any thing since the beginning of April] that I did were "just not there".  Like I believe that.  She also told me to "step into a go-getter role", "show a little initiative", "become a go-to guy", "step into a leadership role", and other BS like that.  I even told her to her face a few weeks ago that I'm no leader, which I ain't.  Believe me, you don't want me leading a bunch of troops through some war torn country.  I like being told what to do, and I'll just do it myself thank you very much.  She did bring that up yesterday, and I said to her face again that I was no leader.  Then she said something about confidence for something stupid like that.  Going back to all that, as I will call it "Company Man BS". How can I be a "go getter" doing a job I hate?  How can I "show a little initiative" at I job that I have no interest in?  How can I "become a go-to guy" and "step into a leadership role" when I could care less about other people and prefer to be left all alone to slave away at something?  Those are a few good questions.  How can you do all that at a job you could care less for?  The world may never know.  I'm just gonna cruise through my work and do as little as possible along the way, and get paid of course. 

So, I hope to be out of there by the end of June, start of August at the latest.  Beyond that, well let's just hope that I'm not there that long.  I also need to think of an "Exit Strategy" AKA "How To Screw You As Much As Humanly Possible Because You Seem To Have Screwed Me Quite Royally Plan” More on that at another time.

 

The Bandits won the NLL Championship last night.  The arena was loud, crazy, and just flat out fun.  Just a few videos of the festivities last night.  It’s just too awesome to describe.

Bagpipe Intro

Mark Steenhuis Scores

Final few Moments of the Game

I went to the Bandits playoff game last night, and it was unlike any Bandits game I’ve experienced in the past.

They [Bandits] went down 3-1 early in the 1st quarter, so the place [HSBC Arena] was pretty bummed as you can imagine.  Then it was all tied at 4 after the first.  Then the flood gates opened.  The Bandits just flat out dominated.  Goal after goal, and great defensive play eventually led to an 18-10 advantage in the 4th quarter.  At some point the Titans players decided to cause a little ruckus and tried to initiate a bench clearing brawl with the Bandits, but they kept their cool, but got a few game misconducts in self defense really.  After that whole fiasco, I could actually feel the HSBC arena shaking beneath my feet.  I was thing to my self “this is crazy bananas…”  The place went absolutely insane!  I’ve never, EVER, seen an arena that nuts and loud.  My ears were ringing afterwards.  It was absolutely insane.

Mark Steenhuis had 6 goals and 2 Assists for 8 points total.  John Tavares had 3 goals and 9 assists for a 12 point night.  Brent Bucktooth and Kevin Dostie each had a hat-trick.  It was the most fun I’d ever had at a Bandits game. 

I’m off to the Championship on Saturday, to join the frenzy that is Bandit Land.

As the title says, I feel like blah.  I got rear ended by a high school kid on Friday, I got a letter saying that I didn’t get a job I applied for, and work just flat out sucks.  No good news so far on the job hunt, but I may have a potential winner forth coming.  I’m also very tired, and more so than usual.  The past two weeks I just can’t seem to keep my eyes open past 10 pm anymore.  That may due to the fact that I spent the past two Saturday nights playing video games until 1 or so in the morning.  All in all, I don’t feel like doing anything of much.  

Hey, I’ve made it a month of sporadic updates.  Doesn’t really prove anything I guess. 

Well, it’s officially on.  It’s time to find me a new job.  I’m getting pretty tired of life where I am now.  It’s all politics with the bosses, and it’s not going to get any better any time soon.  Time to jump off of this sinking ship, and it looks like a bunch of others are jumping too.  Well, 2 others do not seem like too many.  But, one has been listing there 4 years (the one who was mentioned earlier, I was off by a year) and the other takes care of all of the return claims, refunds, and all that fun crap.  Will they?  Like I said, most likely not.

Anyway, I’m going tomorrow to a terra cotta making factory or similar place type thing about 20 minuets away.   Not too bad of a drive.  Another is a carpet warehouse.  I need to write a letter of interest, or something like that.  I’ll do that eventually tonight, if ever.  I’ll keep looking while typing my letter for anything that strikes my fancy as well.

I’ve only been active in the “Full Time” (or as I call it, real) work force for 2 years now.  It’s not like I’ve given 10+ years to this company and feel cheated, or left out of the loop or something.  I’ll have to go into detail my crazy scenario of what would have happened should I not have been demoted to shipping.  Hopefully, by the end of May (June at the latest) I’ll be out of there once and for all.

It’s looking pretty bleak for me going back to list in the offices.  They gave my desk away (managed to steal some good loot, should have snagged the camera too), and that’s not looking too good for my cause.  So, it’s “game over” for me, for now.  I still have a small hope that they will be so desperate for listing help that they’ll bring me back.  I'd ramble on, but it would make me even more depressed.  Here’s hoping for a continue screen to pop up:

Would you like to continue?

===>  Yes

        No

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I almost had to go to the hospital on Friday.  I was cutting the flaps off of a box, and my hand holing my box cutter slipped and hit my forearm somehow.  Fortunately, the blade was not fully extended or I would have at least 3”-5” gash in my arm and multiple stitches (and a nifty looking scar afterwards).  This, would render me quite useless for a while.  This is good, because I need a vacation of some sort away from that place.  Ah, to be a bum again working part-time at the supermarket.  Oh, well.  Growing up SUCKS -_-‘

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In other work related news, everyone is pretty much ready to quit.  From what I’ve heard, they are hiring some new people (again, not helping my cause) and they are going to make 25 cents less than someone who has been there 3 years.  She’s all mad and is ready to go.  Another is tired of having cut hours and being “bossed” around by the warehouse manager.  So of course she leaves work early and whines and moans.  I could go on and on, but I shall not.  Will they leave?  Of course not.  That would be too easy.  I wonder if I should pack up and leave too?  Really throw a wrench in their plans.

I watched TNA Lockdown 2008 last night.  It was a good PPV, not a great PPV however.  The Lethal Lockdown match was a bit disappointing.  I’ve never seen one before, and I guess my hopes were a bit higher for this one.  Although Cage and Styles falling off of a ladder, on to a table, on top of the cage was impressive, but lame at the same time.  Angle vs. Samoa Joe in the MMA match was weird.  I thought it was going to be a Japanese Puro style match, but I was wrong.  It just looked and felt weird when I was watching.  The pace was slow in the beginning with a ton of submission attempts throughout.  At least Joe won the title, FINALLY...  Nothing other really note worthy I can remember, Curry Man (he’s hot, he’s spicy, he tastes great!) somersault of the cage was cool, and Kaz’s Flux Capacitor was freakin’ sweet. 

 

I know pro wrestling is fake and all that, but I’ve been watching 15+ years and can’t get enough somehow. 

I guess it was bound to happen, but I finally got “busted” at work today.  Not really busted in a bad way, but compared to all the crap I’ve pulled in the past, it’s a small crack in the armor.

I coined and claimed status after I was blatantly playing around on Photoshop at my old job.  I mean, everybody saw it.  And the boss saw it too.  I BS’ed my way out of that one.  So, of course I felt invincible after that.  Then at the same job I lost some cash out of the register (people could order stuff from us, and pay cash at the warehouse), and somehow did not get canned, and therefore, felt even more bulletproof.  I’ve made a few mistakes at this job as well, and walked away harm free.  I also failed a state inspection at a grocery store I worked at.  Even more concrete evidence.  But it just snowballed, going back to yesterday in to my “demotion” to working in the shipping department, and general work in the warehouse.  Which blows beyond all belief.  But supposedly after 30 days of a “trial” basis they’ll (my bosses) see what my next step will be.  Of course I’ll be gunning for my old listing position.  Now, as I’ve heard, is being filled by one of the shipping people.  So if that is the case, I loose my desk, the only thing I can call my own in the office.  I had a cubicle, but that got taken away to promote “Team Communication”.  And that turned out freakin’ fantastic.  So I’ll be quite angry at if this happens. 

I’ve always compared these situations to old school side-to-side RPG battles a la Final Fantasy, Pokemon, and what have you.  The enemy has low HP, and has me left with low HP.  My time gage is almost full, but I have no idea how far along my opponents is, and I hope and pray that my turn comes next to use a Potion, Elixir, or any curative spell I have.  So, I’ll consider this round as my enemy’s gage filled up first and connected leaving me left with 1 HP and in critical status.

I’ll use the only potion (a Hi-Potion for those who care) I got and will heal me to 251HP.

So, next round either:

a) It’s going to connect, and connect hard leaving me for dead.

b) I make a triumphant comeback which the annals of RPG history have never seen before and claim victory and 50,000EXP, 500AP, and an X-Potion.

This is going to be the longest time gauge fill up in my RPG history.

On a cynical side note, I don’t have to work with the stupid Russian guy anymore! (Well for 30 days at least  -_-;)

Well, the Buffalo Sabres have been officially eliminated from playoff contention. No real big surprise from me. Losing Drury, Briere, and Campbell is not a good way to start things. Dropping 12 games mid-season doesn’t help things any either. I went to 2 games this season. They were expensive, but still worth it. I sat six rows from the ice for the March 5^th game against Washington. Which, I highly recommend to any hockey fan to sit real close at least once. And then, 12 rows up in “300 Land” against Boston on March 31^st. The seats weren’t that bad. A lot more leg room than I remember. I still kind of bummed out I couldn’t go to the Winter Classic. That’s never going to happen around here any time soon, if ever. Oh well, there’s always next season. Now I have to wait until October to watch hockey again…

As the title says, and as I have been saying since about October, I work with idiots and morons.

First, a little background. I started working at my current employer in about mid-July. We are an online store that sells stuff on our own site, eBay, and Amazon and our own little storefront. Anyway, it's a glorified warehouse job, which is fine as any money is good money.

To make a long story short, the Russian decided to take all of the items off of about 4 pallets and made little piles on the floor. What we normally do, is take an item, see if we have it in the system and add to the total and put it in the appropriate spot in the warehouse. So, he's basically doing the work twice. And then he wrote a note to my other co-worker who comes in at 7am telling him to do the work for him. He ended the note with "Also, Good Morning!" So, that goes in my book as both stupid and moronic.

SIDEBAR

I've decided I'm going to try and not going to be one of those people who post about every little thing, every single day. Just what pops in my little head, like the above. Since I have a feeling that this is going to be a continuing series, I'm numbering each individual part using Roman Numerals. Just something to keep in mind.

So, I turned 25 today.  A freakin' quarter century old.  Figured I'd try out a Live Journal thing, just to see what happens.  I'll probably lose interest in about 3 or so weeks, but, you never know.  Should be more fun than getting your ears pulled 25 times by a Russian co-worker.  Yeah, that actually happened today.